Posts tagged ‘Cahoots Theatre Company’

Toronto Fringe Kitchen Party last night, and the back room of CSI Annex got all spiffed up and so did we. Amazing food by Fidel Gastro, adorable entertainment by Liza Live! super cool auction items and 70+ guests. Fantastically fun evening congrats to the Fringe on having something that was just the right amount of elegant, and just the right amount of Fringe.

Very pleased to be working with Canadian Rep Theatre now, we’re doing a little online presence, a little social media, so take a wander over to their Facebook page and give us a like so we can start sharing a little content with you.

Last weekend to catch the adventures of Abby is Cahoots’ production of Sister Mary’s a Dyke?! over at the Aki Studios. Off you go!

Wandering around Facebook the other day (like you do) and a friend had posted this amazing article – Creative People Say No. Love this:

Time is the raw material of creation. Wipe away the magic and myth of creating and all that remains is work: the work of becoming expert through study and practice, the work of finding solutions to problems and problems with those solutions, the work of trial and error, the work of thinking and perfecting, the work of creating. Creating consumes. It is all day, every day. It knows neither weekends nor vacations. It is not when we feel like it. It is habit, compulsion, obsession, vocation. The common thread that links creators is how they spend their time. No matter what you read, no matter what they claim, nearly all creators spend nearly all their time on the work of creation. There are few overnight successes and many up-all-night successes.

I’m out of the office next week so rather than leave you blog-post-less, I’ve combed the archives for useful posts people really liked at the time and those will be going up instead – enjoy!

Personally? I’m off to be on a panel – Fresh Ideas in Puppetry Day -We’ll be discussing the theme of producing and working with producers, and marketing for theatre, facilitated by Dahlia Katz. Other panelists include Louise Lapointe of Casteliers in Montreal and Anne Barber of Shadowland Theatre. Fresh Ideas Day is an annual mini-conference and festival showcasing artists, both emerging and established, who are taking new and ground-breaking directions in puppetry. This one day convivial gathering is packed full of presentations, demonstrations and discussions, and culminates in an evening of short, fresh works-in-progress along with excerpts from new works. Robert Gill Theatre. Looking forward to it!

Last week! My GOODNESS what a week and you all know why so I won’t even get into that part of it

To add to our content today, our intrepid Communications Coordinator Lisa has created the post below from a discussion we had on the Queen car westbound. I like the look of all these folks – they’ve been a pleasure to work with, and we’ll work together again.

When I arrived at 288 Queen Street for the Sister Mary production meeting, I didn’t expect to know anyone but Sue in the room. I left realizing just how small the Toronto theatre scene is. Here is a quick visual for some (this is in no way complete) of the connections we’ve had between shows at Sue Edworthy Arts Planning.

It seems that every time I meet a new person in the theatre world I soon find that I know of their work, or have worked with someone they’ve worked with, or am friends with their friends. People often complain about this becoming claustrophobic or ‘incestuous’, but the reality is: people who do good work continue to work together.

Reputations and relationships matter, and even in a city of 2.615 million people, amid competition and the feeling of anonymity, communities arise. Like-minded people come together to create. Talent is rewarded and shared and I think it’s important to keep this in mind… both as a warning and as a celebration.

Next week is a busy one with a marketing and PR seminar for Fringe participants, and chaperoning one of the fantastic classes from Mowat as they venture into Hot Docs territory (that’s on too. Hot Docs. I repeat – try harder) and voicework for the YWCA Women of Distinction Awards and I’m looking forward to it all.

Supposed to be gorgeous out today, so this is an early post so we can all get out and enjoy it sooner than later.

Image: A Nick Cave Song by A. Shay Hahn, 10x12inches,acrylic on canvas, framed, at the Press Club in April/May

Show five of five in a row opened this week – head up to the Toronto Centre for the Arts because The Whipping Man is now open!

Last week – a lot of travelling outside of my downtown core – North York, East York and via phone to Port Hope. A lot of teaching as well with the CDAM folks at Ryerson and the media students at Sir Oliver Mowat High School. A great week.

Speaking of Cahoots, off to a design meeting today for Sister Mary’s a Dyke, and had a great meeting Friday with One Little Goat about The Charge of the Expormidable Moose. Looking forward to both these shows.

CAHOOTS THEATRE COMPANY is seeking applications for the position of ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Cahoots Theatre Company has been dedicated to the creation, development and production of new Canadian plays that reflect our cultural diversity for 26 years. Cahoots Theatre Company believes that theatre should reflect the richness, diversity, and complexity that we live daily. Diversity means more than race or nation of origin or ethnicity. It also encompasses gender, sexual orientation, ability, language, and class. Cahoots is a registered charity.
Please see http://www.cahoots.ca/company/job-opportunities/

Cahoots did a good job on their job description – on that note I found this article at bizlaunch the other day.

Finally for today (it’s Friday of a long week) a question that came up in Monday night’s class was on how to keep certain stories from specific people off your Facebook timeline – whether it’s items you’re sensitive to or you’re simply tired of cat pictures. It’s a combination of things – Facebook is something you can do your best to tailor to your individual needs. I still like the explanation I heard a while back – people can put whatever they want on their walls, and you can put whatever you want on your wall, and that news feed is just that – an aggregate of everyone’s whatever they want. If you don’t want to see certain stories there are things you can do, from hiding that person, to hiding certain stories, to changing the status of your friendship with that person. But it requires you to do something. Found this on my newsfeed. Same folks who created the un-baby me app for folks who were tired of seeing so many pictures of their friends’ toddlers and tots.

Lisa and I were talking last night on the way home from The Whipping Man – it’s brilliant, by the way and you should go and see it – about the fact that we’ve been part of five shows that have opened since February 7. An opening on February 7, February 14, March 1, March 14, March 21. We have been BUSY, and we’re proud of the work we’ve done. And today marks the first read through for another production. Add that in with three teaching/guest speaker events this week, plus new client consults and RFPs and I’d say business is going well and I thank friends and colleagues and past and present clients.

Things I want to talk about next week include the power of hearing something on stage, not seeing it.

I also got to thinking about our city. I spent two days guest speaking at a school that is in the far reaches of East Toronto – a GO stop away from Pickering, and The Whipping Man is at the Toronto Centre for the Arts in North York. Two places that are remarkably different from where I live in Parkdale.

The new Facebook page seems to be going well, garnering a steady stream of likes, and I’m happy to have a spot that is handy for all my clients reviews and bits and pieces so they don’t get lost on my personal page.

By now you may or may not have heard that Google is shutting down their Google reader function. While the headline is a bit much (I wasn’t shocked or enraged, felt it was a bit of a drag but am not taking to the streets), it does pose the question, “what do I use now?”

Some have suggested converting to email subscriptions.

So – if you follow me on Google reader, and want to switch to email subscription, there is a handy form on the side of the page you can input your email address into and I will welcome you cheerfully. Recommended by Brian @copyblogger:

Fair enough.

But I get an awful lot of email a lot of the time and the Reader kept things that I wanted to hear about separate and there was no inbox overload or accidentally deleting something I wanted to read. More than often a Reader item goes straight to my bookmarks. And I bet I have readers in the same boat who just plain don’t want more things in their inbox.

Noticed last week there were a few problems with WordPress.com – images not loading, pages taking forever to load. Hopefully it’s been resolved on their end, because I did notice it had an effect on my site stats and hits, and I can’t blame people – slow or not loading sites don’t get traffic. Fingers crossed. Times like this I’m glad there’s a roundup – here’s what might not have loaded for you last week.

I obviously do a lot of writing in my work, and for fun as well. Words make me happy, well written words delight. And any number of people want a blog, have a blog, say they want or need a blog, are writing a blog, etc. so when I found this article… one of the comments struck me as mighty true “although we “publish” more content than ever before, our writing skills (often) get in the way of effective communication.”

I thought it was a great Sunday read, and something many of us should take a look at – enjoy!

My lord it’s cold out. It’s getting to that time of year where we start actively disliking our heavy winter boots, and being annoyed by the amount of time it simply takes to dress to go somewhere.

I was out in it anyway for a meeting with Cahoots Theatre Company and it seems we will be working together in the next few months and I look forward to it.

Man, it’s cold out – videos for you to watch!

First up is Andy McKim – Andy is the AD of Theatre Passe Muraille and they have gotten super good at audience engagement. In this video he says, “we need a sea change in institutional culture if we are to have any impact on issues of engagement.” I completely agree. You should bookmark this and watch it in pieces. Think about it, make notes, take notes, make changes, come up with ideas.

No coals to the castle, this was a really good keynote – you’ll see why I have so much respect for Andy.

Next up! This one has indeed gone viral and once you watch it you’ll see why – it’s mesmerizing, painful in its beauty and very very true. I know sometimes we start watching a video online and then start doing other things as well, but this seven minutes is not the time to multi-task. Attention must be paid.

Got Five? This one might cost you seventy-five cents. Call directory assistance from your provider – cell phone, landline etc and try to get the number for your organization, asking for your company name as people know it/refer to it. Can you get the number?

Check your website on your smart phone – iPhone, Blackberries, Androids, all of them – see if your contact number is immediately visible on your main page, and bonus points if it’s set to dial/connect when you click it.

This has been a PSA for anyone standing in the cold a block from your organization (where they are supposed to be right now) and trying to get a hold of your company by phone.